Author: Justin Worland

President Trump’s administration is planning big cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the aim of moving the organization away from climate programs that grew under President Obama. But the proposed 25% cut to the EPA’s budget would also slash funding to dozens of other initiatives that support clean air and water, which environmental and public health groups say would put human wellbeing at risk almost immediately. “I can predict with certainty that if those cuts prevail — and I’m not predicting they will — millions of people around the country will be exposed to unhealthful air,” says Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies. “It could literally be the difference between protecting public health and premature death.” The proposed cuts — which were not released publicly but have been reported widely and were shared with TIME — represent just the first stage of a winding budget process, and many environmental policy experts do not expect that such drastic cuts will win the approval of Congress. Many environmental programs — including grants to states — remain popular on both sides of the aisle. Indeed, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has already said he is in talks with the White House about maintaining certain state grants that appear to be targeted in the first budget. Read More: How the United States Looked Before the...

A group of Republican elder statesmen called on their party’s leadership to address climate change by enacting a carbon tax to replace much of the Obama-era environmental regulation. The plan, proposed by a group dubbed the Climate Leadership Council on Wednesday, calls for a carbon tax that increases over time and distributes the proceeds back to Americans in the form of a dividend. The plan would be accompanied by regulatory rollback, including elimination of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and a border adjustment that imposes a fee on products made in countries without their own carbon pricing mechanisms. The group includes GOP leaders from the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, including former Secretary of State James Baker, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former Secretary of State George Shultz. Leading Republican economists Martin Feldstein and N. Gregory Mankiw endorsed the economics of the plan. “The simplistic view is that Democrats want to solve climate change and Republicans don’t,” said Ted Halstead, CEO of the Climate Leadership Council, in a speech announcing the proposal. “As our statement proves, that is not true… it is not enough to repeal the current programs. You also must replace those current programs with something better.” Read More: Rex Tillerson Says He Believes in Climate Change — but That May Not Mean Much Pushing President Trump to address climate...

A movement by scientists to march on Washington as a protest against the Trump White House’s treatment of science has gained traction, with more than 115,000 supporters joining a Facebook group for the cause. The move follows a slew of measures from President Donald Trump that scientists and policymakers have said could undermine science and its role in society. “It is time for scientists, science enthusiasts, and concerned ci tizens to come together to make ourselves heard!” organizers wrote on the page. Trump transition officials have prohibited scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency from speaking to the media, removed climate change references from the White House webpage and said that they will require to submit their work for review before its published. Other targeted agencies include the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior. Read More: Climate Scientists Fear Trump May Fatally Undermine Their Work The plan for a march came out of a Reddit thread that grew in the wake of last weekend’s women’s march on Washington which drew hundreds of thousands of people to the nation’s capitol. Environmental activists have also announced plans for their own march in Washington D.C. late April to be organized in similar fashion to the women’s march. Read More: Donald Trump’s Victory Could Mean Disaster for the Planet Even before the push for a scientists’ march, many environmental activists said...

The storm could bring relief to the state’s drought California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains could see more than 10 feet of snow this week as several storms approach the mountain range. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued winter storm warnings in several parts of the state including the Lake Tahoe area, Mono County and the stretch of the Sierra Nevada Mountains from Yosemite to Kings Canyon. The NWS has also warned of rain and flooding at lower elevations. The region has received unexpectedly high levels of snow this year with the snowpack already several inches above average. The news has given California some reason for optimism that this year’s precipitation could break the state’s years-long drought. Tap to read full...

“Some of the doomsday predictions about the marketplace are not bearing out” Almost 6.4 million Americans have signed up for insurance in 2017 under the Affordable Care Act, a record for this point in the year, federal officials said this week. More than 2 million of the sign ups are new enrollments and the remaining 4.4 million are people choosing to renew, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Last year, six million people had signed up for Obamacare at this point in the year. The enrollment period remains open through January. The numbers released by the Department of Health and Human Services come just a month before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, bringing with him a promise to repeal the law. “Some of the doomsday predictions about the marketplace are not bearing out,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wednesday, in remarks reported by the Wall Street Journal....

Randomhouse “It’s nuts and completely indicative of who he is” The ghostwriter credited with writing Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal was served with a cease-and-desist letter by a lawyer for Donald Trump after the author criticized the presumptive Republican nominee for President. “It’s nuts and completely indicative of who he is,” Journalist Tony Schwartz said, confirming the cease-and-desist letter Wednesday on an interview with MSNBC . “There’s no basis of anything legal.” The cease-and-desist letter from Trump’s lawyer Jason D. Greenblatt asked that Schwartz pay back “a certified check made payable to Mr. Trump,” according to a New York Times report. Schwartz had previously told the New Yorker that he wrote all of Art of the Deal despite claims to the contrary by Trump. Schwartz said the Trump of 2016 was evident even when he worked on the book in the 1980s. During the writing process, Trump could not stay focused, often exaggerated the truth and boasted about his own accomplishments, said Schwartz. The book would be better titled “the sociopath,” Schwartz told the New Yorker. “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization,” he...

Real estate circles buzzed Wednesday over reports that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have decided to lease this nine-bedroom mansion in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood when he leaves office in January 2017. The home sits on a quarter-acre lot just down the road from the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence. Andrew Harnik—AP The Obamas will move to a nine-bedroom home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington D.C. after leaving the White House in 2017, according to reports. The family will rent the 8,200-square-foot home while President Obama’s daughter Sasha finishes high school in the nation’s capitol. The home is owned by Joe Lockhart, a Democratic Party insider who now serves as an executive at the National Football League, and his wife Giovanna Gray Lockhart, a Glamour editor. The location in Kalorama is a popular spot for many of the city’s wealthy and already features a large security presence to protect the many diplomats who call it home. The news, first reported by Politico, comes less than a month after the White House announced that the Obama’s oldest daughter Malia will attend Harvard University in the fall after taking a gap...